The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved the creation of an expanded local calling area for Greater Sudbury.
This local calling area, which was recommended by the Community Solutions Team in the Constellation City Report, will allow residents and businesses in Greater Sudbury to call anywhere in the city without incurring long-distance charges.
View map of expanded local calling area.
The expanded toll-free calling initiative, which comes as Bell’s response to a request from Greater Sudbury City Council, will be implemented on April 8, 2008. The calling area will include all of Greater Sudbury, as well as portions of the Municipality of Markstay-Warren, the Township of Nairn and Hyman, and the Wahnapitae and Whitefish Lake First Nations. (Portions of these municipalities and First Nations are included in the program because they share telephone exchanges with areas of Greater Sudbury. The local calling area is based on telephone exchanges rather than municipal boundaries.)
“I am very pleased that residents and businesses of our amalgamated city will now have the ability to call other Greater Sudbury locations without incurring long-distance charges,” said Greater Sudbury Mayor John Rodriguez. “Members of Greater Sudbury City Council have been lobbying for this service for a number of years – these efforts have finally been rewarded.”
A monthly surcharge will be applied to Bell wireline bills within the affected area for a period of three years following the implementation of this service. The surcharge will amount to 34 cents per line per month for residential customers and 38 cents per line per month for business customers. These surcharges were derived through a process set out by the CRTC and were agreed to by the participating municipalities and First Nations. The surcharges will help to compensate Bell and other long-distance providers for revenues they will no longer receive once the local calling area has been established.
In early 2008, information will be distributed by Bell to customers within the new local calling area.
